Dance and playwright artisans honored

David Laurell

David Laurell

David Laurell

The Media City Ballet and the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance gathered respectfully last week to honor their artisans and supporters.

Encore! An Evening of Dining and Ballet was staged at Glendale's Chevy Chase Country Club to celebrate the kickoff of the Media City Ballet's 10th season. Headquartered in Burbank, the ballet company presents a season of full-scale productions and studio session presentations. They also bring arts-centered educational programming into local elementary school classrooms.

Friday evening's event, co-hosted by "3rd Rock From the Sun" actress Elmarie Wendel, and character actor Dan Roebuck, paid tribute to four legendary dancers of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo — Patricia Peters Doyle, Paul Maure, Andrei Tremaine and Dorothy Matise Wade — for the artistic support and direction they have provided the company over the past decade. Additional honors were bestowed upon Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Andre van Niekerk, dean of the business school at Woodbury University, for their years of generous support to the company.

Artists of a different discipline were also honored at the Armenian Church Western Diocese as the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance presented its second biennial William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting that pays tribute to the work of authors who produce plays with Armenia themes.

Hosted by actress and XM Satellite Radio personality Ana Kasparian, top honors went to SilvaSemerciyan for his play "Another Man's Son," which tells the story of an Armenian family forced to confront the hidden consequences of genocide in 1958 Beirut. Semerciyan edged out finalist Sevan KaloustianGreene and Johnna Adams for the $10,000 grand prize award.

The evening also saw the alliance bestow its Armenian Star Award upon His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, for his longtime support of Armenian artists.

Among the special guests in attendance were alliance President Bianca Bagatourian, board members Alfred Demirjian, Karen Kondazian and Lisa Kirazian, actor Ken Davitian of "Borat" fame, and StevePapazian, who serves as the president of worldwide physical production for Warner Bros.